Program designed to aid students

Wednesday

The Greater Columbus Arts Council will start a program to connect artists, cultural organizations and independent arts-education programs into a network for students.

The Greater Columbus Arts Council will start a program to connect artists, cultural organizations and independent arts-education programs into a network for students.

The program will be open to students in kindergarten through grade 12, with a focus on the needs of children during afternoons, weekends, summers and other out-of-school hours.

With $250,000 from the Franklin County commissioners as part of its 2008 budget, the program will be created in partnership with Transit Arts, a nonprofit teen-youth program; and the Columbus Federation of Settlements, a nonprofit association of seven settlement houses that provide neighborhood meeting space for community and family activities.

The initiative will have two major components: Art in the House, which will focus on free programming within the settlement houses in Columbus and other neighborhood sites; and Transit Arts activities -- tours, jobs and internships for ages 13 to 19.

"There's a natural connection between GCAC's experience working with younger children and our focus on programming for young adults," said Jackie Calderone, artistic director of Transit Arts.

For more information, visit www.gcac.org and www.

transitarts.com.

Audition workshop set

The Theatre Roundtable of Central Ohio will present an audition workshop at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Shadowbox in Easton Town Center. The workshop is to prepare participants for the Feb. 23 "unified audition" at which performers will be seen by a group of central Ohio artistic directors and producers.

For more information, call Tom Cardinal at 614-416-7625 or visit www.theatreround

table.org.

Cartoons to be on view

Original and prints of cartoons will go on display today at the High Road Gallery, 12 E. Stafford Ave., Worthington. "Laughs at Lakeside: Cartoon and Graphic Arts by Ohio Artists," presented with the National Cartoonists Society Great Lakes Chapter, will run through Feb. 23.

During the opening reception, from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, a cartoonists' group will conduct a "jam session," creating a progressive cartoon.